You’re playing a standard 2v2 on Rift. You think you’ve got your build order down. Then, suddenly, your scouts get melted by a pair of massive, orange-clad Lekgolo behemoths. You realize too late that your opponent went with the Colony. Now, your base is being eaten by space worms.
Honestly, Halo Wars 2 Colony is one of the weirdest additions Creative Assembly ever dropped into the game. Most leaders in Halo Wars 2 are individuals—think Atriox, Cutter, or Decimus. Colony is different. It’s not a "he" or a "she." It’s an "it." Or rather, a "them." We are talking about a pair of Hunter bond-brothers acting as a single representative for the Lekgolo swarm within the Banished.
That distinction isn't just lore fluff. It completely dictates how the leader plays. If you aren't ready for a slow, grinding, "I will outlast you" playstyle, you're going to have a bad time.
The Weird Logic of the Lekgolo Hive Mind
Most players jump into a new leader and look for the "win button" ability. For Colony, that’s basically the entire passive tree. You don’t just use abilities; you modify the very physics of your units.
Colony’s whole vibe is about density. While other leaders focus on high-mobility banshee swarms or glass-cannon infantry, Colony wants to sit on your doorstep and refuse to leave. The Living Barrier ability is the perfect example. It’s literally a wall of worms. You drop it, and the enemy pathing goes haywire. In a game where positioning is 90% of the battle, being able to physically alter the map geometry is huge.
You’ve probably seen high-level players like Nakamura RTS or Liam (Y0da) exploit this. They don’t just use the barrier to protect their base. They use it to trap your units in a chokepoint while their Goliaths do the heavy lifting. It’s frustrating. It’s slow. It’s brilliant.
Why Goliaths are a Love-Hate Relationship
Let’s talk about the Goliaths. These are Colony’s unique core infantry unit, replacing the standard Jiralhanae Jump Pack Brutes. They are massive. They are tanky. They move like they’re wading through peanut butter.
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If you try to chase a fast-moving UNSC Jackrabbit opening with Goliaths, you will lose. You’ll spend five minutes walking across the map only to find the enemy has already moved on to your second expansion. Goliaths are meant for one thing: smashing buildings and soaking up fire.
The Ram Ability. That’s the secret sauce. A well-timed Goliath ram can stun heroes and delete light vehicles. But if you miss? You’re stuck in a cooldown animation while a bunch of Marines poke you to death with AR fire. It’s a high-risk, high-reward unit that defines the early game for any Colony main.
Hard Truths About the Colony Power Curve
Colony isn't an "early game rush" leader in the traditional sense. You aren't Shipmaster. You can't teleport your way out of a mistake. If you get caught out of position, your units are likely going to die because they just aren't fast enough to retreat.
The power curve for Colony looks like a steep hill.
- Tier 1: You are vulnerable to scout harassment.
- Tier 2: You become a wall. Skitterers—those tiny little symboites—start coming out.
- Tier 3: You become an unstoppable force of nature.
The Skitterer is arguably the best support unit in the entire game. You can "attach" them to almost any other unit. Imagine a Marauder tank, but now it has a mini-turret on top that fires independently. Or a Shroud that can actually defend itself. Putting Skitterers on your Hunter Captain turns him into a raid boss that requires a coordinated effort from two players just to take down.
Colony’s Leader Powers: The "No Fun Allowed" Zone
Colony’s DLC pack brought some of the most annoying—and effective—powers to the Banished roster.
- Devastating Host: You drop a bunch of Veterans and Hunter brands on a location. It’s an instant army.
- Colony Drop: No, not the Gundam kind. It’s a targeted strike that drops Lekgolo clusters.
- Combat Repair: This is where the "Expert" tier of play comes in. It’s a passive heal that works even while units are taking damage.
In most RTS games, you have to pull back to heal. Not Colony. With the right upgrades, your units just... keep... going. It forces the opponent to focus fire. If the enemy spreads their damage across your frontline, they are effectively doing zero damage because your passive regeneration is outstripping their DPS. It's a math game, and Colony usually wins the calculation.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Hunter Captain
The Hunter Captain is your Hero unit. He is the slowest thing on two legs. Seriously, he makes a T-90 tank look like a Ferrari.
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New players often try to use him as a scout. Don't do that. The Captain is an anchor. You park him on a contested power node or in the middle of a narrow pass. His Taunt ability is his most important feature. It forces enemy units to stop attacking your squishy stuff and focus on him.
Because he has a massive shield and absurd health, he can take it. While the enemy is stuck attacking the "invincible" captain, your Reavers or Locusts are melting their backline. It’s a classic MMO tank-and-spank strategy brought to an RTS environment.
Countering the Hive Mind
Is Colony broken? Some think so. But honestly, it has glaring weaknesses.
Air units are the bane of a Colony player's existence if they haven't prepared their Skitterer-Reaver combo. Since Colony units are so slow, a dedicated Hornet or Banshee wing can hit a base, fly away, and hit another base before the Colony army even arrives.
Mobility is the counter. If you are playing against Colony, you have to play the map. Don't engage their main army head-on in a chokepoint. That’s exactly what they want. They want a "meat grinder" fight. Instead, use split-pushing. Force the Colony player to move their slow-moving blob of units back and forth across the map. They will eventually trip up, leave a base exposed, or fail to reinforce a fight in time.
Real-World Example: The 20-Minute Grind
I remember a match on Vault where a Colony player held a single chokepoint for 15 minutes. They had Living Barriers up constantly and used the Combat Repair passive to keep a group of three Goliaths alive against an entire UNSC army.
The UNSC player eventually won, but only because they stopped trying to "kill" the Colony army and started using Pelicans to drop units behind the lines. They ignored the Hunters entirely and went for the production structures. Once the Colony player lost their ability to replenish the front line, the "wall" finally crumbled.
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Actionable Strategy for Colony Players
If you want to actually win with Colony in the current meta, you need to master the Skitterer-Locust transition.
- Early Game: Build two Goliaths immediately to pressure the enemy's mini-bases. Don't try to kill their main base yet; just starve them of resources.
- Mid Game: Get your Hunter Captain out. Attach Skitterers to everything. If you see the enemy building air, get Reavers. If they go tanks, get more Hunters.
- The Combo: Use the Stasis power (if available via teammates) or your own Living Barriers to segment the enemy army. Kill half of them while the other half is stuck behind a wall of worms.
- The Finisher: Once you hit Tier 3, your Brand abilities become lethal. Use them to soften up the enemy's core before moving in with your slow, inevitable march of death.
Colony is about patience. It's about being the boulder that the river has to flow around. You aren't the lightning strike; you're the erosion that eventually brings the mountain down. Master that mindset, and you’ll find that the Lekgolo are one of the most rewarding factions to play in the entire Halo Wars 2 ecosystem.
Key Takeaways for Your Next Match
- Prioritize Skitterers: They are effectively a force multiplier that makes every unit 30% better.
- Don't Overextend: Your units cannot run away. If you commit to a fight, you better win it.
- Use Living Barriers for Offense: Trap the enemy in their own base or block their retreat paths.
- Vet Your Captain: A Vet 3 Hunter Captain is arguably the hardest unit to kill in the game. Protect him until he reaches that point.
The Banished might be Atriox’s toy, but Colony proves that the Lekgolo are the real power behind the throne when it comes to raw, unyielding force on the battlefield. Keep the swarm moving. Keep the repairs flowing. Eventually, everyone else just runs out of bullets.
Next Steps:
- Check your current build order and see if you can squeeze in an extra Harvester before the 3-minute mark to fund your Goliath rush.
- Practice "Barrier Placement" in AI matches to learn the exact pixel-perfect spots that block pathing on maps like Bedrock and Ashes.
- Experiment with attaching Skitterers to unconventional units like the Shroud to see how the added DPS changes your defensive capabilities.